‘CONVERSION’ – the first step in the ‘New Evangelization’ that leads to ‘Porta Fidei.’
“Conversion’ that leads to Faith. Another way of saying this is ‘Evangelization’ that leads to Faith. Pope Benedict referred to it as “New Evangelization” that leads to Faith. And the steps of Evangelization that leads to Faith are: Conversion, entrance to the Kingdom of God, encounter with Jesus Christ and Union with the Holy Spirit. The result of all these is attainment of ‘Eternal Life.’
Christ came to earth to teach us the way to eternal life. And this Way of life had been entrusted to the apostles and eventually to the Catholic Church through her official spokesman the Pope. And the present Pope, like all other Popes is doing his duty of making sure that all the souls under his Pontificate know exactly ‘The Way’ without error.
Specially today where everything seems to be on the decline, and as the Pope mentioned, ‘there is no way of stopping it.’ The only imminent thing that we can look forward to is OUR DEATH, either through the revolt of nature against rebelling mankind or man’s inhumanity to men. And there is no way to prepare for such eventuality except to assure that we have FAITH that leads to Eternal Life. With the ways things are going there is no other future.
Pope Benedict had not stopped repeating this topic in all his talks to show the importance of FAITH. In fact if we gather all his addresses on the subject there was no need for a Bishop’s Synod. He had spelled out everything necessary for the attainment of Faith. Pope Pius XII, when confronted with the suggestion to call an Ecumenical Council to face the enormous problems of his Pontificate, including a raging global war, his answer was NO. God has given the Popes the light to give the solution. Whether men will accept it or not is another question. Pope Benedict had given us the solution to all the world’s problem today ‘New Evangelization’ that leads to Faith. FAITH that conquers the world…..is the solution. Without Faith, there is no other solution and the world’s total decline is inevitable. And since the Holy Father sees that the world will not listen, not even amongst the Catholics, his last advice is: ‘Stop saving the world. You can’t. What is happening is Divine Justice. Just concentrate in preparing your souls by taking the proper steps necessary that leads to FAITH.
But the evil spirits are also active. In fact, too active. Dark clouds are appearing at the horizon of the Bishop’s Synod. The Lineamenta issued from the Vatican to the Bishops is sounding an unclear bugle call, as St. Paul would describe it. The Instrumentum Laboris, a compilation of the responses of all the Bishop’s of the world is also an unclear bugle call. An ordinary soul, by reading both documents would not even suspect where to begin and where to end. Even bishops who have began preaching the ‘New Evangelization’ are airing unclear bugle sounds. Some of them are even expert theologians invited to advice the Bishop’s Synod.
But yesterday, a glow among the dark clouds. The Holy Father issued a list of other advisers to the Synod and they seem to be his picked men. We can only hope for a fine weather on those days in Rome.
The dark clouds omitted the two most important topics in Pope Benedicts schema, namely, first, ‘conversion’ and secondly ‘entrance into the kingdom of God.’ Let us leave for a moment the lengthy and the difficult to understand Lineamenta and Instrumentum laboris which Bishops are already preaching these days, and concentrate on what Pope Benedict had already said.
Last March, the Holy Father addressed some priests and deacons. His message is ‘on the importance of Conversion.’ He said it was the most important element of the ‘New Evangelization.’ He calls it the “motor” that makes the soul go through the steps of evangelization that leads to Faith. It is the motor that makes holy souls that will renew the Church. Without it we go nowhere.
The instrumentum laboris for the Bishop’s Synod next month, however, mentioned that we don’t need conversion. Contradiction? Maybe we are not agreed on the definition of conversion. Let us clarify the word. Since Pope Benedict is highly influenced by both St. Augustine and Blessed John Newman, let us see what the two had to say about “conversion.”
A soul must undergo complete conversion before he can deserve eternal life. Christ said: “Repent, believe.” Repent is conversion and Christ showed how this is done by living for 30 years a hidden life. That is how long it ordinarily takes……unless God has very special plans for you. Faith is received immediately after conversion. It might take someone a shorter time but one has to undergo all the necessary steps. What are the steps and at what point does Conversion begin?
The three general steps that lead to Faith, using the words of St. Augustine are:
A. for the mind to return and discover the self as the image of God and at the same time see the God who gave us that image…and how God stands in reference to us as creature. This is a critical initial step. This is where a soul begins to be a saints or begins to be a pagan.
B. if a soul does well in the above first step, his mind will realize that he is much inferior to God who is above all and Creator of all, …..and as a consequence will submit himself to this Almighty God in all things. This is still in the level of the mind but with the cooperation of the free will….which we shall describe later. This is accomplished by a right Conscience, says John Newman. This is humility that makes a soul disposed to receive the beginnings of grace. God gives the soul grace here. Conversion begins here. But it is only a beginning. It has a long way to go.
C. After the soul has re-entered into his mind and discover both his mind confronted by God………. AND realizing he must subject himself completely as creature to Creator……which is conversion….he begins to discover through revelation the Will of God…..not all of them immediately. He learns is slowly beginning with the commandments of God in the Old Testament (10 commandments of the Father thus coming to know the Father as reflected in his own mind). Then he proceeds to study all the commands of Christ in the New Testament (specifically numbering more than 80) and how to obey them…..thus encountering Christ. This is the beginning of Faith in which the souls knows the Father and the Son. Faith will mature depending on how much of God’s commands he learns.Faith is when he has learned WHAT are all the commandments of God the Father in the Old Testament and WHAT are all the commandments of God the Son in the New Testament. To perfect that Faith the soul must also learn HOW those commands must be obeyed. Strictly speaking this is Evangelization. This is the contents of the Apostolic Commission given by Christ to the Apostles in the last chapter of the Gospel of St. Matthew in the ‘commissioning of the disciples’.
We cannot do C, which is to have Faith and develop it into mature Faith unless we have done B, that is receive the grace of Conversion…..which is not given to all because of a defective letter A.
When by the grace of God we know all WHAT are the commandments of God, both in the Old and New Testament and, also the HOW all those commandments are to be obeyed, this is mature Faith. When we put into practice what our minds have learned through Evangelization, this is the virtue of Charity. With Faith and Charity we would be deserving of Eternal Life.
The main reason why there is a great lost of Faith seen all over the Church from the sands of Africa to the Bishop’s palaces, from the priests to the chambers of the Pope, from the nuns to the seminarians….is because of a defective A…… a defective first step.